An Heiress for His Empire

CHAPTER THREE

MADDIE FOLLOWED VIK into Le Mason, not at all surprised when the maître d’ found them a table in a quiet corner in the perpetually busy restaurant, popular with tourists and locals alike.

“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.

She shook her head, not even pretending to herself that shredding Romi’s offering of chocolate pastries counted as actually ingesting calories.

He ordered the restaurant’s specialty pancakes for her and coffee for himself.

“Did you bring me here to remind me of friendlier days?” she asked, sure she knew the answer.

“I brought you here because you used to crave their banana pancakes and I hoped to tempt you to eat.” His six-foot-four-inch frame should have looked awkward in the medium-sized dining chair, but he didn’t.

With his dark hair brushed back in a businessman’s cut, his square jaw shaved smooth of dark stubble and a body most athletes would be jealous of covered in a tailored Italian suit, nothing about Viktor Beck could be described as awkward.

Doing her best to ignore his sheer masculine perfection, Maddie adjusted her napkin over her lap. “How did you know I hadn’t already?”

“I guessed.”

“I used to stop eating when I was stressed.” She was surprised he remembered.

“Are you saying that’s changed?”

“No.” Too much was the same, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.

She had to remember that Vik’s interests here were aligned squarely with her father’s. Not Maddie’s. He’d made that clear six years ago and nothing had changed since.

Yes, Vik had gotten Conrad focused on curtailing the media frenzy around Perry’s supposed breakup interview, but he’d done it for the sake of the company. Again...not Maddie.

Whatever his agenda now, it had the welfare of AIH as the end goal, she was sure of it. And if she got swept along with the tide, so be it.

“Give me the bullet points of the contract.” She was morbidly curious about what her father had done to entice a man like Viktor Beck, or Maxwell Black for that matter, to marry her.

Vik’s dark brows rose. “You trust me to tell you everything important?”

Answering honestly wouldn’t just make a lie of her earlier words, but it would make her a fool. “I’ll read it later to make sure.”

“Your father accepts that you will not be his successor.”

“What was his first clue?” She’d refused to get a degree in business and had fended off every request, demand and even plea for her to take a job at the company.

“Do you really need me to enumerate them for you?”

“No.”

“Suffice it to say, Jeremy has finally accepted you are never going to be CEO of Archer International Holdings.” Vik’s deep tones were tinged with more satisfaction than disappointment at that pronouncement.

“It would certainly set a roadblock in your own career path if I were.”

His espresso eyes flared with quickly suppressed surprise.

She smiled, pleased that he hadn’t realized she knew. “You don’t seriously think your desire for that office is a secret?”

“It’s a family-owned company.”

“That you plan to run one day and if Jeremy doesn’t realize it, he’s being willfully blind.”

“That is one of his failings.”

“You think?”

“He does not see you for who you are or what you need from him.”

“You tried to tell him, once.” The year before her clumsy attempt at seduction.

She’d thought Vik standing up for her meant he cared. But looking back, she had to conclude the friendship he’d offered her had been in pursuit of his own goals. Gaining Jeremy Archer’s unmitigated trust.

She could have told Vik befriending her wouldn’t do anything for him. Her father would have had to care about her for that to be the case. And he didn’t.

The only thing that mattered to Jeremy Archer was the company. He’d married her mother to gain the necessary infusion of capital to make AIH a dominant player in the world market. His only interest in Maddie had been as a potential successor.

“He’s given up on me personally because he realizes I’m never going to be his business heir.” As much as it hurt, it also made sense of how unconcerned he’d seemed to be by “Perrygate.”

“The only thing Jeremy has given up is his plan to try to lure you into the business.”

Maddie shook her head, not buying it for a second. “You heard him. He had no intention of having Conrad help me until you stepped in.”

“Your father can get tunnel vision.”

“And all he could see was the endgame.” He hadn’t even noticed that her scandal had adversely impacted AIH’s reputation.

“Yes.”

Maddie waited for the waitress to place her pancakes on the table and walk away. “Which is?”

“You married to a man who can and will be groomed to take over as Jeremy’s successor.”

“If my father can’t get what he wants out of me, he’ll use me to get it, is that right?”

“That’s a very simplified view and not entirely accurate.”

She wasn’t going to argue something she knew to be true, as did Vik, even if he was too loyal to admit it.

“Jeremy wants his successor to be family.” Hence the marriage. “How old-fashioned.”

“It ensures his grandchildren will inherit his legacy intact.”

“And that’s important.”

“To him.”

The smell of pancakes, fresh bananas and syrup had her mouth watering. “What about you?”

“You need to ask?”

“AIH is your life.” As much as it had always been her father’s.

“Say rather AIH is the vehicle for my own dreams.”

“I didn’t know men like you dreamed.”

“Without visionaries at the helm, companies like AIH would atrophy and eventually die.”

“So, you think my father is just a very dedicated dreamer.” Sarcasm hanging thick from her words, she took a bite of her pancakes and hummed with pleasure.

Vik laughed. “That is one way to put it.”

“And your personal dreams include being president of AIH one day.”

“Yes.”

His easy honesty surprised her and charmed her in a way. She’d always thought of men like him as having goals. Solid, steady, unemotional stepping stones that marked their success.

“Wow. I guess the heart of a Russian really does beat under that American-businessman veneer.”

“My grandparents like to think so.”

She offered him a bite of pancake with a slice of banana. “And your parents?”

Vik took the bite just like he used to and memories of a time when they’d been friends, and all her dreams had centered on this man, assailed Maddie.

“My mother has been out of the picture for all of my memory. My dad is like a computer virus. He keeps coming back.”

She smiled. “I should say I’m sorry, but having a father who drives you nuts makes you more human.”

Vik shrugged, but she couldn’t help wondering if he’d told her about his dad on purpose. To build rapport. She thought Vik had outclassed her dad a long time ago in the manipulation department.

After all, Jeremy Archer still thought he ran AIH. However anyone with a brain—not blinkered by willful blindness—and access to the company would realize it was actually Vik’s show and had been for a few years.

“Whose idea was it to offer Steven Whitley and Brian Jones up on the chopping block?”

“It’s hardly a sacrifice to be offered this kind of opportunity.” Vik drank his coffee, his expression sincere if she could believe it.

But then what was to say she couldn’t?

“Marriage to the prodigal daughter for an eventual company presidency?” That might well be worth it to a man like Vik.

“You don’t exactly fit the distinction of prodigal.”

“Don’t I?”

“You haven’t blown through your inheritance. In fact, you are surprisingly fiscally responsible.”

“Thank you, I think.”

“You haven’t abandoned your family to see the world.”

“I moved out of the family home.”

He winked at her. “But stayed in the city.”

“What can I say? I love San Francisco.”

“And your father.”

“I’d rather not talk about that.”

“Understood.” He smiled and her nerve endings went twang. “Your media notoriety isn’t even of the truly scandalous variety.”

“Until Perrygate.”

Vik waved his hand, dismissing the importance of Perry’s lies. “That will be handled.”

“Thank you for that.” The thought of being forced to give up her volunteerism because of an unsavory reputation hurt deeply, compounding her pain at Perry’s betrayal.

He knew how important working with the children was to her.

“But seriously?” she asked, refocusing. “Whitley and Jones?”

Vik shrugged, but his lips firmed in a telling line. “They’re the most likely men within the company to do the job.”

“Marrying me?”

“Becoming the next president.”

“Besides you.”

“Besides me,” he agreed.

“You’re the only real candidate.”

“I would like to think so.”

“And then there is Maxwell Black.”

Vik’s eyes narrowed, the brown depths darkening to almost black. “Your father is never going to approve the kind of marriage Black suggested.”

“And if that is the only kind of marriage I’m willing to agree to?” she taunted.

“Jeremy will hire a surrogate and have his own child in hopes of succeeding with him where he failed with you.”

Wholly unprepared for that answer, several seconds passed before Maddie felt like she could breathe again. “He’s not a young man any longer.”

“He is fifty-seven.”

“He would not be so cruel.” And she did not mean to her.

No child deserved to be born merely as a player on the chessboard. She should know.

She’d taken herself out of play, but she’d had the strength of the memory of her mother’s love to bolster her own courage.

This child would only have Jeremy Archer.

Maddie shivered at the prospect. “I’m not having a child simply for him or her to be put in the same position.”

“You want children.” There was no doubt in Vik’s voice.

“Someday.”

“Whenever you have them, or whoever you have your children with, Jeremy will want the company to ultimately pass on to them.”

“I know.” Her father’s role in her life and that of any children she might have was something she’d already spent several hours talking to her therapist, Dr. MacKenzie, about.

“That is not a bad thing.”

She’d come to realize that. While Maddie’s feelings about AIH were too antagonistic for her to ever want to be a part of it, as she’d always seen it as the entity that kept her father from her, it did not automatically follow that her children would feel the same way.

“You said something about me having a child being necessary for the man I marry to take over AIH.”

“Upon the birth of our first child, my succession to the presidency will be announced. Your father will shift into a less active role as chairman of the board on his sixtieth birthday.”

“And if I haven’t had a child by then?”

“My becoming company president will not happen until we have had our first child.”

“What if we can’t have children?”

“We can.”

“You sound very certain.”

“I am.”

She remembered the ultrasound her doctor had ordered as part of her last physical, at the company’s request. She’d thought it was odd, but since her medical insurance was through AIH, Maddie hadn’t demurred.

“Jeremy had them run fertility tests on me.”

“Just preliminaries, but enough to know that aside from something well outside the norm, you should have no trouble conceiving.”

“That’s so intrusive!”

Vik didn’t reply and, honestly, Maddie didn’t know what she wanted him to say. She wasn’t entirely sure the test had been all her dad’s idea. If Vik had suggested them, she wasn’t sure knowing would be of any benefit to her.

“What else?”

“The contract gives five percent of the company to me on our five-year anniversary. Another five percent on the birth of each child, not to exceed ten percent.”

“How generous, he’ll allow me to have two children.” She’d always dreamed of having, or adopting, at least four and creating a home filled with love and joy.

“The contract does not limit the number of children you have, only the stock incentive to me for fathering them.”

She ignored the way Vik continued to assume he was her only option. “What else?”

“On your father’s death, if we have been married for ten years, or more, I will get another five percent of the company. The remaining fifty percent of the company will be placed in trust for our children with voting proxy passing only to our children actively involved in the executive level of running the company. I will hold all outstanding family-voting proxies.”

“But the other children will receive the income from the shares.”

“Yes.”

“It sounds complicated.” But then her father wasn’t a simple man, not by any stretch.

Vik took a sip of his coffee. “Jeremy wants a legacy and you’ve made it clear you won’t be part of it.”

“So he wrote me out of the will.”

“Only insofar as his ownership of Archer International Holdings is concerned.”

“I see.” Honestly, she didn’t care.

The Madison Trust provided all the income she needed to live on. That income would decrease once half of her shares in the company transferred to Romi, but Maddie didn’t mind.

The biggest expense she had was keeping up her appearance as Madison Archer, socialite. As far as she was concerned, that part of her life could go hang. If her father wanted her to keep up appearances, he could pay for the designer wardrobe and charity event tickets.

“Is there anything else pertinent to me in the contract?”

“Your father would like us to live in Parean Hall.”

The Madison family mansion, named for the pristine white marble used for flooring in the oversized foyer and the risers on the grand staircase, had stood empty since the death of Maddie’s grandfather from a massive coronary upon hearing of his daughter’s accidental death nine years ago.

“I have plans for the house.” It was part of the trust and would come to her when she turned twenty-five.

“What plans?”

“That is none of your business.”

“Indulge me.”

Maddie didn’t answer, but concentrated on finishing her pancakes. Vik didn’t press.

His patient silence finally convinced her to tell him.

She said, “I want to start a charter school, this one with boarders from the foster-care system.”

“An orphanage.”

“No, a school for gifted children in difficult family circumstances.” A place the children could be safe and thrive.

Vik sipped at his coffee pensively for several moments.

“How will you fund it?”

“A large portion of my trust income will go to it annually, but I also plan to raise funds amidst the heavy coffers of this city. I’ve learned a lot about fund-raising since my first volunteer assignment on the mayoral campaign when I was a teenager.”

“Your father has no idea how full your life is.”

“No, he doesn’t.” And Vik had barely an inkling as well.

She’d stopped telling him about her plans and activities when he’d rejected her so summarily six years ago.

Vik relaxed back in his chair. “The Madison family estate is a large house, even by the elite of San Francisco standards, but hardly the ideal location for a school. Either in building architecture or location.”

“Oh, you don’t think poor children should live among the wealthy?” she challenged.

He didn’t appear offended at her accusation. “I think it will cost more than it’s worth to get zoning approval.”

“That section was zoned for the inclusion of a local school, but none was ever built.”

“And you think that zoning will remain once your neighbors learn of your plans?” he asked in a tone that said he didn’t.

“I don’t intend to advertise them.”

One corner of his lips tilted just the tiniest bit. “A fait accompli?”

“Yes.”

“You have to apply for permits, hire staff...it’s not going to stay a secret long.”

“And then the fight begins, you are saying?”

“Yes.”

“But why should the residents care if there’s a school in their neighborhood? The city planners clearly intended there to be one.”

“And the fact there isn’t should tell you something.”

“But—”

“I can find you a better building.”

She didn’t want to sell her grandparents’ home. Her memories there weren’t the greatest. Her Grandfather Madison had often made Jeremy Archer look warm and cuddly by comparison, but Maddie’s mother’s stories of her own childhood had been filled with delight.

Maddie always wished she’d had a chance to know her grandmother, Grace Madison.

“I’ll have to sell the mansion to finance another purchase.” No matter how much she might not want to do it.

The school was too important to give up and Vik was right, as he so often was—the opposition to a boarding school in that neighborhood for the underprivileged was bound to be stiff.

Vik shook his head decisively. “I’ll buy the other building.”

“In exchange for what?”

“Consider it my wedding gift to you.”

“Presumptuous.”

“I’m the only man I will allow you to consider.” Dark brown eyes fixed on her with unmistakable purpose.

She ignored the way his words sent shivers through her insides. “You’re assuming I’ll agree to marry.”

“Your father doesn’t realize it, but I know he didn’t need anything beyond his first threat to convince you to fall in with his plans.”

“You don’t think so?”

“Are you in another relationship?” Vik asked, the words clipped, something like anger smoldering in the depth of his gaze.

“No.” Maddie saw no reason to hedge.

“Dating anyone?” he pressed.

“No.” She frowned. “Why are you asking about this now?”

“Because if you were in a relationship with someone who mattered to you, no pressure your father brought to bear would sway you into marrying someone else.”

He was right, but it rankled. “You think you know me so well.”

“I know that your dad means more to you than you want him to believe.”

“It’s not a matter of what I want.” Her father didn’t think he mattered to Maddie because she wasn’t all that important to him. Not in a personal way.

“Jeremy isn’t going to back off on this.”

“Why now?”

“You need to ask?”

“Yes.” Her father had been too unconcerned about Perry’s scandal for it to be what tipped him into must-get-my-wayward-daughter-married mode.

“Jeremy has been worried about what will happen when you come into your majority for the Madison Trust for a while.”

“Now he knows.”

“I don’t believe he saw that one coming.”